It's going that way.
Labels are useful for promotion, though: that's why you see big name artists now going independent, cause they're popular enough they'll make TONS more money that way since they're no longer being screwed but have gotten a lot of popularity through label promotion. Freshly independent artists...much harder. Or can be. But some bands have already gotten famous that way.
It's all owed back.
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
Most people would make more doing it themselves, since a ton of major label artists are actually in debt constantly, sometimes by millions. It's a lot of work but worth it if you want it bad enough.

Yeah thats what I mean by financing, acting kind of like an industry specific bank / loan shark
Even if they owe artists money for the most part they never get it. Its why Stuck Mojo released an album for free with an option for a bought version, it was basically a fuck you to the record companies.

Beautiful. Just beautiful! The fact that they're being judged by the standards with which they judge others is just the icing on the cake.
I can only hope this is not only successful leads to similar mass lawsuits in other countries. The more damage this causes the industry's big four the better.

This case is amusing and it will be funny if the recording industry loses the case. Maybe the balances of power will shift more towards artists and users.

Everyone who thought that record labels (aka middlemen) care about copyright beyond the extend that they can profit from it, please raise your hand. Now, everyone who has their hand raised, take it and bitch-slap yourself with that hand for being such naive idealists. All those folks making all that noise about copyright infringement don't give a flying fuck about copyright or about the artists they're supposedly representing. They only care about making as much money as they can through their legalized extortion schemes and outright theft of the public domain.
Disclaimer: Very, very drunk right now.

Yeah, let's all hope he'll sue the hell out of the so called "industry".....

Last week Spain Goverment included in an Law Project one very special addenda in wich it�s said that a 'Culture Comission' will given power to close ANY web wich they 'believe' that attempts to owner's rights without judicial intervention.
Summaring, a non-judicial comission could close ANY web whitout previous trial.
That's called Censorship.
Many bloggers and internauts are 'lobbing' trying to stop this Law Project.
One of the most interesting moves has been the writting of a Manifest for Internet User Rights.
Here is the link to the manifest:
http://www.enriquedans.com/2009/12/manifiesto-en-defensa-de-los-derechos-fundamentales-en-internet.html
Brothers, it�s time to fight!

This chapter of bleach basically represents that. The big ugly bug is the industry and the good guys are the internet.
[url=]
http://www.onemanga.com/Bleach/386/01/[/url]

well.... damn.